Mindaugas Survila

Mindaugas Survila is a Lithuanian biologist turned documentary filmmaker, graduated from Vilnius University with a Master's degree in natural sciences. After this, he decided to pursue his long-time dream of filmmaking by studying cinematography while working with well-known film directors such as Šarūnas Bartas, Sergey Loznitsa and Audrius Stonys. In 2012 his film The Field of Magic (2011) received the national Lithuanian cinema award Silver Crane for the Best Documentary Feature. It is his love for the native woods that inspired him to make people fall in love with – and care for – the ancient (Lithuanian) woods through his latest film, Ancient Woods, the preparation, shooting and production of which took him 8 years.